Vietnam began giving out free Vietnamese internet domain names on Thursday, but many people have complained it's not easy to apply for one.

The country's domain registry, Vietnam Internet Network Information Center, said all individuals and organizations can register Vietnamese domain names for themselves online, starting 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. Registrations are taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

The program is an effort to promote the use of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), or domain names represented by local language characters. Such domain names may contain Vietnamese characters and accent marks.

"The registration and use of Vietnamese domain names such as muabánôtô.vn, chợviá»‡t.vn, and chứngkhoánviá»…nÄ‘ông.vn will create a completely Vietnamese environment on the internet," the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center said in a statement. "This is very important for Vietnam's technology integration and internet resources application."

News website VnExpress reported Friday that Vietnamese domain names, available since 2004, were not appealing to internet users due to the inconveniences caused by the Vietnamese accent marks. Since the domains are now free, many people have rushed to register them.

The number of Vietnam domains registered as of Friday afternoon stood at 30,000, VnExpress reported, citing the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center.

The growing demand, however, has made it difficult to register Vietnamese domains online. Many people complained that they had to wait for an hour for their registration to go through.

Tran Minh Tan, deputy director of the center, said due to increased traffic to the center's websites (ten.vn; tenmientiengviet.vn), such difficulties were inevitable.